Bandolier, Luftwaffe Fallschirmjaeger (blue)

Bandolier: blue canvas bandolier consisting of twelve ammunition pockets. Each pocket is fastened by a metal pop-stud.

Second World War period German paratrooper's ammunition bandolier. For airborne operations paratroops required to carry substantially more personal ammunition than the sixty rounds that were contained in the conventional infantry rifle ammunition pouches used by them. This problem was overcome by the use of canvas bandoliers that could be worn around the wearer's neck, over his chest and fastened to his belt, thus supplying him with an extra one hundred rounds of 7.92mm rifle ammunition. The bandoliers were initially made of Luftwaffe blue canvas, but later they were mass-produced in both splinter pattern camouflage, marsh pattern, as well in khaki-tan (for use in North Africa/Italy). Another form was also produced to accommodate magazines for use with the special paratrooper's rifle introduced in 1942, the Fallschirmjaeger-Gewehr 42, or FG42.